The present disclosure relates to a semiconductor device, and in particular, to a three-dimensional semiconductor device.
Since the integration of semiconductor devices can be an important factor in determining product price/performance, increased integration may be needed. In the case of conventional two-dimensional or planar semiconductor devices, since integration may be mainly determined by the area occupied by a unit memory cell, the level of integration achieved may be influenced by the technology used to form fine patterns. However, such technology may be relatively expensive and therefore may impose some practical limitations as to the level of integration for two-dimensional or planar semiconductor devices solely provided by such technology. To overcome such limitations, there have been recently proposed three-dimensional semiconductor memory devices including three-dimensionally arranged memory cells.